Emmett J. Scanlan

Emmett J. Scanlan
Scanlan Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2024
Born	Emmett John Scanlan (1979-01-31) 31 January 1979 (age 46) Finglas, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2004–present
Spouse	Claire Cooper ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	3

Emmett John "Emo" Scanlan (born 31 January 1979) is an Irish actor, known for playing villainous, bad boy characters. His credits include Hollyoaks (2011-2013), The Fall (2013-2014), Peaky Blinders (2013-2016), Breakdown (2014), In The Flesh (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), The Tower (2021), Ten Percent (2022), Kin (2022), Fool Me Once (2024), and MobLand (2025).

Scanlan was born on January 31, 1979, in Dublin.^[1]

He played the lovable rogue and bad boy Brendan Brady in Hollyoaks from 2011 to 2013, for which he was nominated and won many soap awards.^[2] He appeared alongside Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in the BBC Two drama The Fall (2013-2014).^[3]

From 2013-2016, he starred alongside Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders,^[3] Series 5 and Series 6,^[3] and worked alongside Craig Fairbrass, James Cosmo, Bruce Payne, Olivia Grant and Tamer Hassan in Breakdown (2014),^[3] .

Scanlan has acted in BBC Three's In The Flesh series 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).^[4] In 2021, he starred as Inspector Kieran Shaw in ITV's The Tower.^[5]

In 2022, Scanlan appeared as Marcus MacLeod in the British remake of Call My Agent!: Ten Percent.^[3] He played a main role as Jimmy Kinsella in the RTÉ family gangster drama Kin.^[3]

In 2024, he starred alongside Michelle Keegan and Adeel Akhtar in the Netflix series Fool Me Once (2024),^[3] and worked alongside Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Tom Hardy, Paddy Considine and Joanne Froggatt, playing a heavy for the Harrigan family in the British Gangster series MobLand (2025).^[3]

Scanlan married girlfriend Claire Cooper on 31 December 2015 in New York City.^[6] On 18 July 2020, she gave birth to a boy named Ocean.^[7] In October 2020, Cooper disclosed that she had suffered a miscarriage of their baby the previous year. On 12 November 2022, Cooper gave birth to their daughter.^[8][9] Scanlan has a daughter, Kayla, born September 2002 from a previous relationship.

Scanlan is a vegan and supports PETA.^[10] He is a supporter of Manchester United.

^[3]

• (*) means there were two main rounds of nominations for that category. Shortlisted means he made it to the second and final round of voting.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emmett J. Scanlan.

• Emmett J. Scanlan at IMDb